Do Brits Spend Over Four Billion a Year On Prostitutes?

Here at Escort Scotland we are well aware that the escort industry is booming. However, even we were shocked to see the latest study which shows that Brits are spending £4.3 Billion last year on prostitution.

This was all put together by the Office of National Statistics compiled the information in an attempt to work out what we spend on illicit things like drugs and sex. As well as the £4.3 Billion on prostitution, we spend £6.7 Billion on narcotics.

The Same as Beer And Wine

Back to the sex. The Telegraph newspaper pointed out that the total is similar to the amount we spent on beer and wine in 2013. The amount is also half the company turnover of supermarket Sainsbury’s.

Now the question you are going to ask is why are the ONS doing this? Well, it is all down to the EU. Obviously we put a certain amount of cash into the EU to fund it and that is dependent on how much the country is earning. Simply put, the more you earn, the more you put in. Well, drugs and the sex industry are are part of a national income, so it has to be monitored.

It has to be said, I’m not a Britain First muppet or a UKIP xenophobe, but it does seem like the EU are trying to screw some more money out of us. How long will it be before UKIP jump on this information and start complaining?

Now there is another obvious question. How, when drugs and prostitution are black markets, how can anyone be sure how much money is going ‘through the till’? Well, it seems that the information is hard to come by, so the figures may not be totally accurate.

Take prostitution for example. The ONS used research by Eaves, who estimated that there were 7,000 off-street sex workers in London in 2004. Now to get the figures for the rest of the country, they just used the a scale system, assuming the number of prostitutes per person is the same whether you’re in Cornwall of Camden. Then to get figures for 2014, they assumed “that the number of prostitutes has the same pattern through time as the 16+ male population. This is a weak assumption based on the market for prostitutes’ services. It is necessary because we have no time series data for the number of prostitutes.“

Realistic Prices of Transaction

There is also another problem with this. How the hell do you say how much every transaction is worth? Escort Scotland knows that all the escorts on our website charge different prices.

To get the income researchers looked at Punternet to figure out an average price which is assumed to be the same across the whole country. Then they take information from a 2004 Dutch study on how many clients sex workers see in a typical week, and how many weeks are worked over the course of an average year.

The ONS are doing the best they can, but this seems like more guesswork than real facts.

No matter how accurate this information is, it does go to show that the escort/prostitution industry is on the up and up. I just can’t believe the government isn’t making it legal so they can get the tax off it.

Do you think prostitution should be made legal? Let us know in the comments section below.

Martin Ward is a well respected editor and writer with over five years experience in the adult industry. After stints in the Escort Advertising call centre and on the escort forum, he moved into the site editor position around three years ago.

Since then, he has specialised in articles on the battle for equal rights for sex workers, sexual health, as well as bringing the readers fun news from around the world. He also has a major interest in LGBT rights, and is an active campaigner in this field.

When he isn't fighting the good fight, he enjoys spending time with his girlfriend, and young daughter. He also enjoys reading and taking long walks.